Shadows In The Mirror
by lady-warrioress
Summary: The collision of two different worlds leads to a race against time to stop the worst possible outcome.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Shadows and Shards

It was a peaceful and warm night in Shinjuku summer warmth blanketed the city, while the clear sky allowed stars to twinkle above and a full moon hung in the air. It was a perfect night, surely nothing would ruin it.

Right?

That was what Impmon was thinking as he lounged on the roof of his tamer's house, enjoying the night air and the wide expanse of sky above him. It was a great night and nothing was going to come and mess it up for him.

Yeah, right. This was Impmon after all, nothing good ever happened with him for long.

So as he lay there, arms resting behind his head, left leg crossover over his right, the sky above him began to waver.

"Huh!" The digimon stared at the rippling sky above him, blinking twice and standing up to try to get a better look, though the darkness made it a little hard to do.

The sky suddenly seemed to open up above him, the stars shifting into a a strange pixelated form that opened into a swirling whirlpool in the center. A second later something fell through that portal and dropped out. Right above him!

His eyes widened in surprise and he freaked dancing in place in panic just second before the thing that fell out of the portal landed right on top of him, knocking him onto his butt.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, sitting upright and rubbing his head. "What hit me- huh?!" He opened his eyes and stared.

Something lay sprawled out in his lap. it had a black and white body and looked like it was wearing some kind of metal headgear. What he assumed was orange hair came out of the back of the helmet like thing, pulled back into a pony tail. A second later the creature lifted it's head and stared at him with one bright red eye.

"Ack! What kind of digimon are you?!" he exclaimed, staring into the cute feminine face.

The black and white female's eyes widened and she jerked back, getting off of Impmon by floating upward and away. She then hovered in front of him and got into a defensive position. He scrambled up, realizing she might attack him and faced her also going into a defensive position in case this weird female digimon decided to try anything. He didn't know what type she was but given how small she was she couldn't be a higher level than a rookie.

"Ya wanna fight me?" he asked her. He summoned some fire which floated above his three fingered hands, ready to fire them at her if she decided to get aggressive. "Okay, toots, have it your way."

The female glared at him not at all intimidated by his little show of power and looked like she was about to attack him but then she suddenly became aware of where she was and her attention was diverted to the many buildings and skyscrapers surrounding her.

When Impmon realized she was no longer paying any attention to him, he lowered his hand extinguishing the flame and giving her a confused look. "Uh..." Without a word she jumped off the roof, landing in the street just behind the house.

"Hey!" he called moving to follow her. "Where do ya think you're goin'?!"

He landed behind her on the street and she turned to him once she heard him land. She frowned at him and began to fly away from him without a word. Not liking being ignored he jumped in front of her to block her path.

"Now just a minute there, toots," he said, spreading out his arms to prevent her from going around him. "You're not going another step until ya answer my question."

The female's expression change from mild irritation to outright frustration. She floated in space for about a second before she finally spoke, and when she did it was with an accent he had never heard before.

"Get out of my way whatever you are! I don't have time for this!"

He stared at her with a somewhat confused look on his face. "Huh?"

She looked annoyed that he didn't seem to understand her. "Move!"

Then.. her hair attacked him! The orange ponytail balled up into a fist and swung at where the digimon was standing. His reflexes saved him a rather painful blow as he jumped into the air to avoid it, letting the fist smash into the pavement and make a rather large crater. His eyes widened when he realized if he hadn't moved he would have been flattened.

Meanwhile the female that he was now one hundred percent certain was a digimon, flew off down the street when he got out of her way. But she didn't get too far because one Impmon had landed back on the ground he summoned pile of fire and threw them at her where they landed in front of her and blocked her way. She screeched to a stop and turned to glare back at the digimon just as he tackled her to the ground.

The two fought for a few minutes before Impmon managed to pin her down. "Okay now, you crazy broad," he said, holding her down with one red gloved hand and he made a fist with the other as if he would hit her if she tried anything. "I'm not gonna let ya up until ya tell me who you are and what ya think you're doin'!"

She glared at him and opened her mouth to say something when a loud shrieking sound split the air.

"What the-?" Impmon looked up, his green eyes locking on something in the sky. It looked exactly like the thing he'd seen earlier that the female creature he was holding onto had come from. As he stared at it three figures dropping out of it, landing on the pavement and surrounding him.

Impmon's eyes widened as he took in the strange hunched over shapes with strange flat heads and black undulating bodies. Odd red designs lit up their chests and long stringy black hair came out of the strange masked heads.

What in the world?!

"Now you've done it," the female creature said. She raised her hands, shoving him off of her now that he wasn't focused on her and jumped to her feet, turning to face the monsters. "Just stay out of my way while I take care of these things."

Impmon stared at her from where he sat on the pavement. What did she think she was going to do to "take care" of these things? They all looked way more powerful than she was. But while he sat there, trying to figure out what in the world she intended to do about them she rushed forward, right toward the closest one.

The beast, seeing her coming smashed it's hands down hard on the ground and raised it's flat head, letting out that same unholy shriek from before. When he did two more dropped out of the sky, one landing right beside Impmon.

He let out a yelp and jumped to his feet, instinctively throwing a fireball at the creature. The small flame hit it's face and fizzled out harmlessly. The two stared at each other for about two seconds and then the beast roared into his face, nearly knocking him over. He grimaced at the sound and when it stopped he decided he had something better to do and turned to rush away from the beast which only made it chase after him.

"Hey, I'm not fightin' you!" he yelled over his shoulder when he saw that the creature was after him. "Go chase a mail truck or somethin!"

He was so focused on the one behind him he didn't see the one in front of him until he ran into it and was knocked on his rear. He stared up at the beast, eyes wide and teeth clenched together as the other beast stalked up from behind.

"Look out!"

Suddenly the beast in front of him seemed to explode and he turned his head away and closed his eyes as beast guts rained down on him. Behind him he head a similar explosion and this time he opened his eyes to look over his shoulder, no longer seeing the beast but seeing the female digimon standing where it had been only moments before. She had her hands on her hips and she was glaring at him as if it had all been his fault.

"What are ya lookin' at me like that for?" he demanded.

"You are pathetic," she said, frowning.

The insult did not go down well with him and he snapped, scrambling to his feet. "I am _not_ pathetic!" he shouted at her.

She folded her arms and gave him a condescending look. "Could have fooled me," she smirked. "all you seem to be able to do is run away."

Having spent months enduring such insults from others, including nearly losing his life when he tried to stand up to a rather ruthless bully, being called pathetic was still a sore spot for him and he wan't going to allow this smart alack female digimon to get away with it. He glared at her, his hands clenched into fists.

"Now see here, toots, I'm not going to stand here and let you insult me like that."

She chuckled, her grin broadening. "Then stand somewhere else and I'll insult you there."

"Okay, that's it!" he summoned multiple flames over his hands. "That's it, you're goin' down!" he threw the flame at her. "Badaboom!"

They all flew harmlessly past her and she started cracking up. "Your aim is hideous!"

That only made him even more angry and he ran at her. "Why I atta-!"

But he didn't much further because all of the sudden they were surrounded. "Whatever it was you were planning on doing, it will have to wait," she said, turning to face the beasts. "because right now we have more important things to worry about."

* * *

Elsewhere in the city three children and their digimon partners were having a similar issue.

"Pyro Sphere!"

A large fire ball breathed from a red and black velociraptor like digmon with the hazard sign encrested on his white belly hit the black shadow beast square in the face with no affect.

The digimon and his human partner a brown haired boy wearing a blue hoody and light gray shorts stared in shock as the flame fizzled out.

"Takato, I don't think it's doing anything," the lizard observed.

"Then you're just going to have to evolve!" the boy named Takato exclaimed, pulling out his digivise. However the devise did nothing.

"Huh?" Takato stared down at the item in his hand. "It's not working."

"Takato look out!"

The boy looked up just in time to see one of the monsters lunging at him, he yelled and ducked, putting his hands over his head. Just then a yellow and white fox type digimon appeared and kicked the creature in the head, knocking it away into a large bush close by.

"Special moves don't seem to hurt it but normal attacks do," it said, turning to face the boy and his digimon.

"Takato!"

Hearing his name being called the boy turned, spotting two other children rushing up to him. A boy with dark haired and wearing a orange vest, blue t-shirt and dark pants and a red haired girl in a t-shirt with a broken heart and wearing blue jeans. They were proceeded by a white colored rabbit like digimon with floppy ears.

"So they appeared here too?" the dark haired boy said once they reached Takato. He looked around at the beasts who were milling about them. "What are these things?"

"Don't you know?" Takato asked him.

The girl pulled out her own digivise. "We have no idea," she told him. "The digivises aren't giving any kind of reading. Whatever they are they don't seem to even be digimon."

"Not digimon?" Takato exclaimed "If they're not digimon what in the world are they?!"

Neither of his friends could give him an answer.

"It doesn't matter," the rabbit creature who was called Terriormon spoke up. "we have to get rid of them."

"How are we going to get rid of them if special attacks don't hurt them?" Guilmon wanted to know. "My fire did nothing."

"Special attacks don't hurt them," Renamon, the fox digimon said, joining the conversation now. "physical attacks do but unfortunately they don't do much more than knock them out temporarily."

As she said this the beast she'd knocked away from Takato let out a roar and began to get back on its feet. The children and their digimon all looked toward it.

"It's awake!" Takato exclaimed, freaking out.

"Get it, Terriormon!" the other boy exclaimed.

"Right Henry!" the rabbit like digimon agreed, jumping forward and bowling his body into its chest, hard enough to knock it over.

"I'll help too!" Guilmon offered, rushing forward and butting his head hard against the creature, sending it rolling head over feet back into the bushes.

"Let's get them, Renamon," the girl called to her digimon.

"Already on it, Rika!" the fox responded, rushing another beast that had begun to move down the street toward them and kicking it in the head.

* * *

Elsewhere a boy named Ryo and his own partner digimon named Cyberdramon were having much of the same problems with just about the same amount of luck. The boy had tried to give his digimon an advantage by slashing cards across his digivice to power him up but for some reason the cards did nothing and neither, like the other digimon's attacks, were his digimon's special moves.

He was having a somewhat better time though since Cyberdramon seemed very happy with just using brutal physical moves on the beings, though he couldn't seem to kill any of them which was only causing him to grow more and more angry. Presently the boy was just allowing the violent digimon's temper to go unchecked as he hoped the digimon would grow so angry he would eventually kill one of the things which seemed to have no intention of dying.

But just as quickly as the attack began, it ended when the shadow beasts suddenly seemed to decide they had better things to do and rushed away. Cyberdramon, unwilling to let them get away with such an action growled and gave chase even as his human partner called for him to stop. He jumped onto the roof of a house then jumped to another, keeping an eye on prey as he continued to follow them.

"Cyberdramon, come back!" the boy shouted, rushing after his digimon. He hated when his partner's fighting spirit got up, it wasn't just an inconvenience it was unsettling. He just hoped he'd be able to catch up with the dragon digimon before anything bad happened.

* * *

It didn't take Impmon very long to figure out his special skills and absolutely no affect on the shadow beasts and he had no choice but to change tactics. This realization brought on a rather unwanted flashback which left him freezing in mid-battle when the unwanted memories came flooding back.

Unfortunately when this happened he had been in the middle of a jump and he landed on the ground just as the female creature had been attacking a beast with her hair which had balled itself into a fist. Her punch wound up smacking Impmon head on and he was sent pinwheeling into one of the beasts pummeling it so hard it let out an agonized shriek and vanished in a puff of black and purple smoke.

Impmon at on the ground where the beast had been only a second before, blinking at the smoke which slowly floated upward.

"Wow, looks like you're not completely useless after all," the female spoke up just then, jerking him back to reality.

"What?!" he turned to glare at her.

She giggled. "Don't be so angry," she said. "I was giving you a compliment, after all you did just help me get rid of those guys. But now that I'm done I really have to be going, I have someone I have to find." she turned from him back looked back to give him a wave. "See you later!"

Impmon jumped to his feet. "Hey!" he called, moving to follow her as she flew down the street. "Wait!"

It became apparent that she was not going to listen to him so he was forced to follow after her, partly because he still needed an explanation for what was going on and she obviously knew what that was. He also wanted to know who she was looking for and he hoped to be able to if he kept up with her.

Keeping up with her was becoming harder than it looked and he might have completely lost sight of her if not for what happened next. One minute she was flying down the street free and clear and then the next the air before her and the child digimon seemed to tear open and something stepped out of the void.

The female stopped and stared up at the figure standing before her. Impmon, once he caught sight of it also stopped to stare. The thing that had exited the portal was a tall humanoid figure in long black robes with thin green lines on the body and sleeves of the robe it wore, it's head was that of a chameleon, though the entire thing looked like it was made out of medal so it could have been some sort of helmet. It stood motionless for a brief moment before it reached forward and grabbed the female. who shrieked and began to squirm in it's grasp.

The thing held firmly onto her as he was then joined by more of the shadowy beasts from before. Then without a word it turned and started to head back into the dark void behind it.

This got Impmon moving. "Hey!" he yelled, rushing toward them. "You're not goin' anywhere with her!"

A small fire lit up on his finger and he threw it at the tall figure who had turned to look back at him. The flame made contact with the creature's head and fizzled out harmlessly. Instantly the figure raised a hand and blasted the digimon with a massive wave of dark energy, knocking him off his feet and trough the air before he came crashing down on the pavement.

When he tried to get up something heavy slammed into him, forcing him back down. He cried out and tried to get up again, only to find out he couldn't move. He was suddenly aware of a presence standing over him and, lifting his head, he saw the strange masked figure looming over him seconds before everything went dark.

* * *

Guilmon let out a growl as he was knocked backward by a heavy blow from one of the shadow beasts. He'd made a rush at one and tried to knock it over as he and the others had done previously but this one had been ready for him and lashed out, landing a hard blow on his snout. He landed at the feet of his human partner Takato who looked around with a frustrated expression.

"There are so many of them!" he exclaimed, his brown eyes panning over the monsters who were crowding the streets, roofs, and trees all around where he and his friends were battling. "Every time we think we've taken out one ten more take its place!"

Renamon kicked one into the branches of a nearby tree, two other beasts came out from behind the trunk and headed toward her.

"They're multiplying!" she exclaimed, backing up so she could stand protectively in front of Rika. "It's like they are invisible to all of our attacks."

"And our cards don't do anything either," Henry responded with frustration, looking down at the cards he held in his hand. He'd been swiping the cards across his digivise to modify Terriormon's abilities but it had become obvious very quickly that the power-ups were doing very little.

"We have to do _something_!" Rika exclaimed, unwilling to give up. "If we don't they're going to overrun the city!"

"But what can we do?!" Takato shouted, turning to her. "Nothing we throw at them does anything! Even physical attacks barely make a scratch!"

"What do you suggest we do then?" Henry demanded as Terriormon came rushing back to him. "Grabs tree branches and-"

A loud howling split the air, cutting off the rest of the boy's sentence.

"What was that?!" Takato exclaimed, looking around to find the source of the new sound. "Another monster?"

"Hey, what's that?" Terriormon asked, noticing something above them on the roof of one of the houses. He pointed with his ear, using it like a hand.

The children and their digimon all lifted their heads to look in the direction the rabbit digimon indicated. They spotted a figure down on all fours a second before it came charging down from the roof and landed in front of them. However it was facing away from the children, it's attention instead focusing on the monsters which were slowly making their way closer and closer to the children.

This creature looked like some kind of canine covered in a brown and white coat of thick fur. It growled menacingly at the shadow beasts then rushed them, jumping onto the head of the closest one and biting into it's flesh. It let out a screech then fell to the ground, the beast then rushed to the next one as the first monster it attacked exploded into dark energy. It repeated the process with the rest of the beasts, making short work of the monsters. The children watched in utter disbelief, completely shocked that it was actually able to defeat the beings.

Before too long the beast had finished taking care of the monsters it once more landed in front of the children and to their surprise the wolf began to morph, taking on a more humanoid shape. Right before their eyes the body went from being on all fours to being bipedal, the finishing outcome becoming that of a young man in a green tunic and sandy colored pants. On his back he wore a shield of purple and gold with strange symbols on it, below that they could make out the shield of a sword with a royal purple handle, , he wore long brown fingerless gloves on both arms and sturdy brown boots, on his head he had on a hat the same color as his tunic. His hair was a dark blond that framed his strong face, his blue eyes holding some kind of inner determination.

For a moment they all stood there, staring at one another in silence but then it was broken by Guilmon exclaiming. "Wow! How did you do that?"

The young man looked down at the talking digimon looking slightly startled that it was able to talk before he turned away from the group without a word.

"Hey!" Takato exclaimed as he began to walk away. "Wait!"

The youth paused, turning back to look at the young boy, still not saying a single word, though he looked a bit impatient.

"Umm thanks for taking care of those things," Takato said. "I don't know how you were able to do it, I mean none of us could even land as much as a scratch. I mean our digimon hit them with everything they had and it didn't even phase them. Then you came along in that wolf form and took them all out as if it was nothing." he paused a moment. "How did you turn into that form? Are you a digimon too or-"

The young man sighed and fully turned back to them now, as if deciding maybe he should give these children some kind of explanation instead of walking off, though the look on his face seemed to say he really didn't want to do so and was in some kind of hurry. When he spoke his voice carried a thick accent that gave no clue as to where he came from, but it obviously wasn't from any country that existed on earth.

"Hylian."

Takato blinked. "Excuse me?" he said. "a what?"

"I am a hylian," the older youth answered again. "I don't know what a digimon even is."

"What's a hylian?" Rika wondered, looking at Henry as if he could tell her. He was just as confused as she was and simply shrugged.

"I am sorry if you think me rude," the young man continued. "But I really don't have time to stand around talking." he turned away again.

"Why?" Takato shouted before he could go.

The young man looked back at him. "I'm looking for someone and I need to find them before he does." he reached his left hand back and unsheathed the sword on his back. "Please excuse me."

But the children weren't going to let him get away that easily.

"Now hold it right there!" Rika spoke up, coming toward him. "You can't just show up here, take out those monsters then walk off without giving any kind of explanation. What do you think you are? Some kind of anime character?"

The young man didn't have anything to say to that.

"We deserve some kind of explanation," she continued, coming to a stop just a few feet away from him. "Seeing as those creatures decided to appear in our city and cause trouble. Don't you go and say this doesn't concern us after that!"

The young man stared down at her for a moment then signed, turning back toward them. "Very well then," he replied, putting his sword back in its sheath. "I'll explain. How do you want me to begin?"

The girl already had her answer ready. "You can start by telling us who those things are and what they are doing here."

* * *

Cyberdramon finally found his prey, spotting a group of four crouched around each other in a huddle. Roaring, he launched himself from the roof and landed nearby. The beasts all turned to look toward him then when he rushed them they all scattered.

He growled and started to go after one of them but the thing evaded his grasp by seemingly vanishing into thin air. He roared once more and was about to go after another when something else caught his attention.

Forgetting about the shadow beasts for the moment, he turned and headed in the direction of the thing that he'd caught a glimpse of.

A few seconds later he found it. Some kind of smooth and shiny object laying in a small patch of earth covered in grass, flowers, and a tree that separated two parking lots. It had caught his attention when it's surface had reflected a streetlight's illumination.

The ultimate level digimon paused for a moment, staring down at the object before reaching down to pick it up...

"Cyberdramon! Cyberdramon!"

Ryo was looking for his companion whom he'd gone after when the dragon type digimon had chased the shadow beasts. However he'd lost sight of his partner and was now trying to find him by looking over fences and behind buildings. So far he wasn't having any luck.

"Cyberdramon!" he called out again, his hands cupped against his mouth as he walked around a building and came across a large parking lot.

Just then he caught sight of a leather clad figure crouching down by a patch of grass that separated the parking lot before him and another. Instantly he recognized the figure and started to rush toward it, calling out the name of his partner. The digimon didn't move and the boy wondered if he hadn't heard him. when he got a little closer he called out again.

"Cyberdramon?"

The sound of growling caused him to stop. He stared at the back of his digimon partner who was emitting the deep and menacing vocalization. What in the world?

While he was used to the digimon growling over some of the weirdest things this did not sound like his usual growl, it was alien, as if it were coming from a very different creature. A cold sense of dread began to wash over him.

"...Cyberdramon?"

The digimon spun around then, so quickly the boy took a step back startled. The ultimate level digital monster glared at him, eyes glowing blood red through the leather covering them. He snarled at the human boy, taking a step toward him.

Ryo took another step back, his mind trying to come up with a logical explanation for his partner's sudden change of personality. The only answer that came to him was not something he was willing to accept even as the dragon digimon loomed over him, teeth bared, unearthly sounds escaping his throat.

However just as he thought that Cyberdramon was going to attack him the beast let out a roar and rushed past him. Ryo turned in time to see a black portal open up before them. The digimon made a beeline for it and he realized that if he didn't stop his partner he would go inside and disappear.

Thinking fast he pulled out his digivise and, throwing his hand back a long whip like cable sprouted from it. flinging his arm forward the cable shot out and wrapped around the digimon's arm. Holding on tightly he tried to pull his partner away from the portal but Cyberdramon proved to be too strong and after a brief tug of war the ultimate digimon surged forward, throwing the boy off his feet and into the portal after him.

The last thing Ryo saw before the the portal closed around him was the cable snapping, thrusting him into the endless darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Explaining what was going on to the children proved to be a rather complicated affair but the young man did his best to do so. He was a patient man, having spent a lot of time around children and he really couldn't fault these kids for wanting to know what was going on and the girl was right, he did owe them some kind of explanation.

"I believe the fact that I and the rest of the creatures ending up here was an accident," he began. "You see my own world had been going through a lot of its own problems, the beings that you had a hard time with here have been showing up all over there and have been trying to take over the land one place at a time." he folded his arms and looked at the children. "My friend and I managed to free most of the areas but when we tried to enter her kingdom we were separated and I ended up here instead." now he looked around himself at the night darkened city before adding. "...Wherever _here_ is."

"But what are those things," Rika asked him. "You didn't explain any of that just now."

"They re called shadow beasts," he told her. "They were once human until a dark curse was put on them that reduced them to mindless animals."

"Humans?" Takato exclaimed, his eyes wide.

The young man looked at him and nodded, having no need to say anymore.

Takato's brown eyes reflected the horror stricken look on his face. The young warrior realized this boy seemed to be reliving some kind of past experience but he couldn't be sure. For all he knew the kid was probably acting like that due to the fact that he'd not just killed some monsters but people. But what else could he do? There wasn't any way to break the curse so there hadn't been anymore hope for them. Killing them had been an act of mercy, not one of malice.

Henry had also noticed the look on his friend's face and turned to him, saying his name a few times until he snapped out of whatever episode he was flashing to and looked at him.

"You're fine," he told him. "She's safe and that is over."

Takato nodded and his gaze focused on the young man once more, asking as if nothing had happened. "How come you were able to defeat them but none of us or our digimon could even give them a scratch?"

"I don't know," the man looked the kids and their digimon over. He knew nothing about these things called digimon or how they worked. "I can't explain that but there has to be a reason." he turned his attention away from them then, a frown creasing his face.

Something was troubling him.

Henry noticed this and started to get a really bad feeling. Was there _more_ to the story than just what the man had just told them? What he said made sense, he figured. Him coming from some strange world wasn't all that far fetched considering the digital world existed. He took a quick look around himself, wondering if more than the shadow beasts had come from the portal.

"You mentioned you were looking for somebody," Rika spoke up, regaining the man's attention. "maybe we can help you find them."

He looked at her, unsure. "I don't know," he responded, uncertain. "You wouldn't even know what to look for."

"We would if you describe them to us." she retorted.

"Hold it," Henry spoke up, looking toward the young man. "I think before we commit ourselves to anything we should at least learn your name." the boy didn't know why knowing his name would make any difference at this point but he felt it was the least this strange man could do for them.

"Only if you return the favor," the young man told him. "It wouldn't be fair if I gave my name but I don't know yours."

Fair enough. The three children introduced themselves and their digimon partners. Once they had finished the young warrior said. "My name is Link, nice to meet you."

Then, before anymore words could be exchanged, the haunting screams of the shadow beasts split the air again.

Link swore, unsheathing his sword. "Looks like I'm not finished after all."

He rushed off.

The trio of digidestined watched him go then Rika looked back at the boys, her face a mask of determination. Their faces reflected the same emotion and they nodded, all three taking off after the young warrior hylian named Link.

They pursued him for a few blocks until the children saw him come to a stop and stand still as he looked around himself. When he looked over his shoulder and saw them, the expression on his face made it obvious he didn't appreciate being followed.

Weren't they aware of how dangerous the situation was, especially since none of them could do anything against the shadow beasts? Didn't they care? Did they believe, now that they knew what the beings were and where they came from, they could suddenly defeat one?

Now was not the time to be trying to answer these questions. The danger was still there and he had to take care of it before anyone was harmed.

Link barked an order at the children to stay put before he turned his attention on two shadow beasts who were crouched on the roof of a house, watching him. He gripped the handle of his sword and rushed at the creatures who leaped from the roof of the house and landed in front of him.

But at the very moment when they would have clashed another shriek split the air and the beasts paused, raising their heads and looking sideways before bolting down the street, completely ignoring the young man.

Watching them rush off the answer for their behavior suddenly came to him and he swore. _Not good, not good at all!_ He had to get back before it was too late.

Realizing this he reached into one of the pockets on his tunic and pulled something out of it, raising the object up to eye level. The space before him collapsed into a black void with jagged green lines. He started for the portal but was stopped when that giant female fox creature suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking the way.

"Hold it!" she commanded, putting up one of her three fingered paws. "I cannot allow you to leave just yet."

Link turned, becoming aware that the children who had followed him were still there. Now what?

"Look I have already explained the situation to you," he said looking at Rika who seemed to be the leader. "the beings are leaving now and and will likely not come back, you don't have to worry about it anymore."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," the fox creature replied to his statement.

"Renamon is right," the girl put in. "Whether they are leaving here or not those things caused a lot of trouble here and could have hurt someone, maybe they did and we didn't see it happen, we can't just forget this happened. There has to be a reason for them coming here even if you don't know what it is." she paused and shot him a suspicious look. "or do you?"

He opened his mouth to give a retort, but out of nowhere a large figure came flying out of nowhere and landed on the pavement, causing everyone's attention to be diverted to it. This new creature looked like a large pink rabbit with extraordinarily long arms in a white jumpsuit and wearing a blue ribbon around it's neck.

"Henry!" it exclaimed, rushing toward the Chinese boy and grabbing him by the arms. "it's Suzy!"

The boy stare at the creature, his eyes wide. "Antylamon!" he exclaimed. "what's happened to Suzy?"

The giant bunny stared at him, her large red eyes full or urgency. "Some black monsters attacked us!" she explained in a rush. "they grabbed her and Jeri and ran off with them!"

"Jeri?!" Takato exclaimed, suddenly entering the conversation when he heard the name of his crush. A look of panic had crossed is face. "why didn't you stop them?"

"I tried," she went on. "but nothing I did made a difference. It was like they were immune to my attacks. They carried Suzy and Jeri into a portal and it closed before I had a chance to follow them!"

Henry and Takato looked at each other, their expressions mirroring each other. Those creatures had taken someone they cared deeply for. What had started out as somewhat of an incident that they could have forgotten about if they wanted to had now become personal.

The boys looked over at Link who'd been listening to the entire exchange. Henry spoke directly to him. "What were you saying about us not needing to worry about this anymore?" His expression held a strange anger, as if he were blaming the older boy for what the rabbit digimon had just related. "Your shadow monsters have just stolen my sister and our friend Jeri. If you believe we can just let it go now you have another thing coming."

The young man, sheathed his sword and closed his eyes sighing. Things had just gotten a whole lot more complicated. It looked like he didn't have a choice. These children wouldn't just forget about it now that people they cared about had been pulled into the situation, he could tell by the looks on their faces that they weren't going to take no for an answer.

He could respect that, after all he'd gone through a similar situation not long ago.

"Very well," he said. "Let's go."

Rika looked over at Renamon and gave her a nod. The fox digimon ceased blocking the portal, opening their path to it.

"Stay close," Link advised them as the group headed toward the portal. "You don't want to get separated."

As they headed into the portal the digimon including Antylamon followed. She wasn't going to stay there and wait for her partner to be brought back to her, even though Henry had tried to convince her to do so. After she'd crossed the boundary into the spiraling vortex the opening leading into Japan closed, sealing off any further interaction with that world and plunging them all into darkness.

* * *

Something was poking him. Impmon scrunched up his face and swatted at the offender, his hand making contact with something that jerked away. Good maybe now it would leave him alone so he could get some sleep. It was probably Mako, couldn't that kid keep his hands to himself for once?

Suddenly he felt a painful tugging on his face as someone grabbed his cheek and began to pull hard.

"Knock it off, Mako!" he yelled, slapping at the hand as he came fully awake. "I don't want to play with you right now!"

"Mako?" someone giggled and yanked on his cheek once more before letting it go, the skin snapped painfully back into place.

"OW!" Impmon's eyes snapped open and he sat up, rubbing the side of his face. "Mako, I told you to-" he stopped in mid sentence when he realized he wasn't in Japan nor was the person pulling on his face Mako or his partner Ai for that matter.

It was that weird female digimon he'd run into earlier. She was sitting there in front of him, grinning a toothy grin.

"Ahh!" he exclaimed, putting up his arm as his eyes widened. "What are _you_ doing here?!"

The female "digimon" laughed. "Do you even know where "here" is?" she asked him.

"Huh?" now he became aware of his surroundings and took a moment to take them in. They seemed to be in some dark chamber partually lit by some kind of half light that left most of the room in shadows. The atmosphere it created was unsettling. " _Where_ are we?"

She made a show of looking around the room before she looked back at him and said smirking. "I believe it's called a dungeon."

What?! Impmon's green eyes widened and he shot to his feet. He rushed around the room, making out a wall that was nothing but a line of bars. He grabbed the bars and pulled on them but they didn't give. Squinting in the darkness he could make out more cells on all sides of the one he and the female were in.

"Hey!" he suddenly shouted into the gloomy half light. "Can anybody here me? Lemme outta here!"

The female for her part watched him in silence, smirking slightly as if she was finding his reaction humorous. He finally gave up on trying to get out of the cell and turned back to her. "Okay then, you seem to know so much, where are we and don't say a dungeon?" he stated. "Where is this place and why am I here with you?"

The female looked at him and shrugged. He frowned. She wasn't going to answer his question? What kind of-

"It's kind of a long story," she spoke up before he even finished the thought. "and I'm not sure you would be smart enough to understand it anyway."

Impmon glared at her. What was her _problem_? He hadn't done anything to her and she kept insulting him. He started to call her out on it but then he realized not too long ago he'd had the same attitude problem as she did. Maybe she was also damaged in some way like he had been.

Considering that maybe it would be best if he worded things differently, maybe be a little kinder.

"I don't exactly have anything else to do right now," he told her, walking back to where she was sitting and plopping his bottom onto the cold stone floor. "So enlighten me then. I might just understand it."

She looked at him and smirked. "Maybe..."

He sighed. "Could ya at least tell me your name?" he asked her. "So I don't have ta call ya, toots."

The female seemed to think that request over, as if she was purposely making everything complicated just to get on his nerves, before she finally gave him an answer. "Very well then," she put a hand on her chest as she introduced herself. "It's Midna."

Midna? Not midnamon? So she wasn't a digimon after all? Then why did she look like that? She could very much pass as a digimon. It looked like whatever world he'd gotten stuck in had creatures that looked like digimon but were not. But if this place wasn't the digital world what was it?!

He noticed she was making a face at him and he turned his attention back to her. "What?" he asked.

"Common courtesy would be to introduce yourself as well," she pointed out as if it were obvious.

The digimon bit back a retort. What did she know about common courtesy? Still he decided it was best to just not get into it with her. The best way not to argue is to just introduce himself though he was very tempted to tell her where she could stuff it.

"Impmon."

"Impmon?" her tone made it seem like his name was really stupid. "What kind of name is that?"

"It's the kinda name I got, toots," he replied, unable to to keep himself from giving her a smart comeback. "What kinda name is Midna? It sounds like someone with a very unoriginal mind looked at the clock and said "oh it's midnight! I'm gonna name my kid Midna!". So don't ya go mockin' my name when yours' isn't any better, doll face."

The female named Midna glared at him, obviously unhappy with his little jab. At that moment he didn't much care how she felt. Maybe she did have something bad happen to her but that didn't give her a right to be so rude.

Impmon folded his arms and frowned at her. "Doesn't feel too good does it?" he asked her.

Midna made a face then knocked him over with her magical hair. He landed flat on his face and quickly scrambled to right himself. "Do you want me to tell you or not?" she demanded.

Of course he did, it wasn't like he could ask anyone else about it but that still didn't give her any liberty to be so bratty. Then again he might get more information for apologizing, even though he technically hadn't done anything wrong. Still as they said you can catch more flies with honey.

"Sorry," he said, as he sat back up and rubbed his face with a red gloved hand. "Could you please tell me what happened?"

Midna seemed satisfied with his apology and said. "Very well, this is how it all happened..."

000

"Look at that, do you think he's still alive?"

"I don't know, why don't you poke him?"

"I don't want to poke him! What if he bites me?"

"If he bites you, bite him back!"

Ryo slowly regained consciousness to be greeted by voices arguing about something. They sounded like they were very close to him, maybe even standing over him.

"Do you have a stick? I could use that instead."

"How could I have a stick? We live on a live volcano, trees don't grow here, remember?"

"Fine, I'll use a rock."

Ryo became distinctly aware of heavy footsteps approaching him now. He didn't know who was making them but they sounded like they were big and heavy. _Very_ big and heavy. Like if they tripped and fell, the body that those footsteps belonged to would flatten him into a pancake.

Something told him it would be better just to play dead and maybe the creatures would leave him alone but if they were putting in the effort to start poking him, maybe it would be a better idea if he just let them know he was alive so they would at least keep their distance and if they weighed as much as he thought they did, that would be a good thing.

So without further hesitation he opened up his eyes, and instantly regretted it when he saw the bloated, brown, big lipped monstrosity that stared back at him with bulbous purple eyes.

For about ten seconds there was a pause as the two stared at each other then as one the human boy and the brown monster let out a scream in unison. Ryo, still screaming crawled backwards away from the creature until his back bumped into a rock and the creature who had intended to poke him with a rock, dropped the item and backed up one step then fell onto his butt.

The two still screamed until the brown thing's companion yelled over them. "Hey, cut it out!"

Now the two went quiet as the brown thing's companion, another brown creature, stepped forward and said to his friend. "Enough of the screaming, can't you see you scared him?"

"Well _he_ scared me too!" his friend protested.

"He shouldn't have, bro," the creature said. "we've seen plenty of humans. Remember the one who came here to get the evil out of the temple?"

The other one seemed to recall that. "Oh yeah..."

Now the current speaker turned to Ryo and took a few steps toward him. "Hey, sorry about my bro. He didn't mean to scare you. We weren't sure if you were alive so we were just making sure you were and-"

"Wh-what _are_ you?!" the boy cut him off, still looking freaked out as he pointed at the brown creatures.

"Us?" the two creatures looked at each other. "We're gorons."

 _What_ in the world was a goron? Was it some kind of digimon? It sure didn't look like any and its' name didn't end in 'mon'. Maybe it wasn't one, but if it wasn't a digimon what else could it be?

"What's a goron?"

The two creatures looked surprised by his question. "You don't know what a goron is?"

He answered truthfully. "...No."

"I guess you have been living n one of those isolated villages," the goron who'd told them to calm down remarked, his placed on his chin thoughtfully. "I guess we'll just have to explain it to you..."


End file.
